The Redskins opened their season last night, and you know what that means. Just as baseball’s playoff races get interesting, and the future of the Nationals goes on display every night with the team’s September call-ups, the nation’s pastime is no longer anywhere near the front page of the sports section in DC, and gets barely a mention on the weekend newscasts.

Nats September call-up Danny Espinosa goes 4-for-5 with 2 HRs and a grand slam in his Nationals Park debut, and gets almost no coverage because it's Dallas Week in Redskins country.
AP Photo - Nick Wass

Nationals fans can dream of the day when a Nats dynasty is a nationwide media darling and season ticket wait-lists make Nationals Park seats a hot commodity; but until that day comes, the Nationals PR team faces an uphill battle each fall.

Thankfully, the Nationals have one of the most vibrant blog communities in major league baseball to fill the gap. Collectively, the “Natosphere” misses nothing in its reporting on the team, and wisely, the Nats have been progressive in their embrace of blogs, issuing full season press credentials to select bloggers for the first time this year.

Saturday marked the team’s fourth “blogger day,” during which many more of us were again invited to the park to interview players and team representatives, and report on the game from the press box. The team has also brought on a Senior Manager of Social Media to provide us a point of contact and support when needed.

Kudos to the Washington Nationals for recognizing that this new media form is an outstanding way to break through and embrace their community of passionate fans — even those crazy enough to obsess over giant foam-headed dead presidents.

Speaking of which, the Nats honored my request to give you a behind-the-scenes look at the calling of a presidents race this past weekend. Video report to follow.

One Response

Losing 5 out of 6 on the homestand in soulcrushing rarely have the lead fashion might have had something to do with it. We’re not playing teams in the playoff race and we’re losing ugly. Espinosa’s big day to start the homestand on Labor Day was worthy of more coverage.

It is what it is. You’ve got to win and be in a pennant race to earn the coverage. I’m as bummed out about the Senators loss as the Nats loss.

I realize I’ll get shot down for this, but I’m done with Teddy. I’ve been to maybe 40 games this year. I root for a team that loses enough games already. This whole embrace losing Teddy seems to say something about the tolerance for losing in the whole org. My new thing when I go to the park is to say to find Teddy and say “The Nats losing is all your fault!” On the other hand, it takes no guts to root for Abe the juicer. I’ve gone from “Let Teddy Win” to “Teddy, Earn It!” and “Make Abe Lose”.

If they let the hardcore fans who attend all the games down the stretch see a Teddy win to close out the season, I’d be impressed by the PR department. But it’s not going to happen.

Basically, I’m a George guy. I like DC and the city is named after him.